The EPA has stepped into a steaming cow pie recently as it pushes for additional farm manure reporting requirements.

Farm groups in New York and nationwide are outraged by this latest over-reach of the EPA.

The EPA has decided that dairy farms with more than 700 cows is considered a large “concentrated animal-feeding operation (CAFO) and one with as few as 200 cows is a medium CAFO. Both types of farms are considered environmental threats because of manure supposedly polluting water supplies.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association environmental lawyer Ashley Lyon has bluntly stated: “The EPA should pull this rule. The agency needs to redirect its focus on working with states and other partners to attain already publicly available information that would allow them to work towards their goal of improved water quality.”

The EPA is deciding if it will require all CAFOs to report basic operating information to the agency or farms in certain at-risk watersheds will be required to do so. Farmers don’t want to deal with added reporting requirements in order to run their businesses.

The National Farmers Union thinks the added regulations and reporting requirements are unnecessary. “The EPA does not need to collect any more information from CAFOs in order to monitor water quality,” union President Roger Johnson said in a news release. “By utilizing existing data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and relevant state agencies, the EPA can adequately access necessary information regarding CAFOs and water quality.”

The EPA has no legislative power,BUTCongress does nothing to stop their actions,just like the Dept.of Energy.The govt. is such a monster ,that not one agency is held accountable for its actions.It does not answer to anyone,does as it wants.Again Congress is usless!!!!!!

The EPA needs to be totally dismantled, and restructured. This agency should have the responsibility of assisting Business with environmental concerns and stop being Nazi enforcers that destroys Business and thus increasing unemployment.

Why not abolish EPA altogether and leave environmental regulations to the states? The Constitution does not grant the federal government the power to regulate environmental matters. Powers not delegated to the federal government are granted to the states. Central planning is a province of communism. The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic.

whitetop, you are correct.
Central planning is a province of communism. The United States of America is a Free Constitutional Republic not a democracy. I may add democratic i.e., democracy “is” pure socialism-communism, their ideology, their agenda runs hand in hand as progressive socialists. When we hear politicians vocalize we are a democracy it’s a repetitive lie, because they have told that lie for so many years many believe it, we very seldom hear these politicians vocalize truth that we’re a Free Constitutional Republic, which is very disheartening.

Sorry Mather, the EPA is, in it's present form, not worth nearly as much as a ton or two of B.S., since it can be a pretty good fertilizer. We can all hope and pray that a conservative be elected and they'll do away with the EPA as it is now.

How are dairy famers supposed to measure the amount of manure produced? This is yet another absurd regulation by the EPA.
Farmers have enough sense not to put their manure piles near water sources. Where cows or cattle drink from a pond, of course there is going to some contamination ( from feces getting into the pond). This is hardly a huge problem. The EPA and enviros just don't want there to be any dairy farming or cattle ranching.

Just shut them down completely…They are such a laughing stock, because the really DUMB things they do. Again, it reminds me of a profound statement: The road to ruin is paved with "good intentions". They may have meant well, in their hay-day, but it seems that they lack the most basic of human development skills…The ability to REASON….It's time to put some money back into the coffers, and take an AXE to the EPA….They have outlived their usefulness and should be eliminated…As per Constitution, they shouldn't even BE part of the Federal Government, as it should be the states that regulate themselves…

Looks like they want everyone to become vegitarians. Then they would find something wrong about that. They are a bunch of "Jack Asses". The funny part is they wouldn't know one if they saw one except to look in the mirror.

There's an old cowboy saying and it still fits today if you're out hunting or doing anything else "never drink downstream of the herd". I'm guessing those folds at the EPA never heard that. My second point is that a large number of the coastal cities just pump their human waste out to sea and think that gets rid of it, well, every so often you hear about the beach being closed because of fecal contamination, well, it ain't the cows.

Farmers should have the good sense to use composted cow manure to spread on croplands. They should STOP with the unnecessary, toxic injections given their cattle. The composted manure is an OUTSTANDING product for growing some of the healthiest, most bountiful crops ever.

There wouldn't be all this stupid (yes, stupid) pollution taking place if farmers would get up out of their desk chairs, act like real farmers, pitch the composted manure into the manure spreaders and get cracking. If they want to see their costs decrease and their profits escalate, they need to utilize what the Good Lord has provides to them every time a cow eliminates.

Goodness gracious! We keep claiming that, because of computers and the internet, we are becoming smarter. NO, WE ARE NOT. We are becoming lazy, greedy, sloppy, impatient. We would NOT have all these problems if farmers had stood up to Monsanto and told Monsanto what it could do with its toxic, genetically engineered seeds; if farmers would not have been duped into using meds that are not even needed, and on and on and on ad nauseum!!

Dear Ann,
There are strict regulations against putting cow manure on crops for human consumption. You can't sell your produce if you use it. Only can use it on produce for your own personal (family) consumption. Incidentally, I'm 74, and if you'd like to change places with me for a day and see if you could physically manage my farming/ranching duties, I'd just love to have a day in your shoes.

I don't know if you live on a farm. It takes a lot of cows to produce compost. Monsanto and the FDA lie to everyone. Europe won't even allow some of the things that are forced down the farmers' throats in the United States.. How can a farmer stop work to protest? I don't know a single arm chair farmer, unless you are speaking of big corporations like Green Gi'ant, etc who moved their facilities to Mexico a number of years ago, yet their address indicates the U. S. Crops and cattle are a 24 hour business. Cows have to be milked on a regular schedule, fed, and gutters cleaned of manure. They can't wait for the farmer to get back from a meeting. Farmers never have enough composted manure for their crops. It takes a several months for manure to compost. Farms that have no cattle must rely on commercial products. I guess the EPA thinks composting is bad. Manure does have to be piled up to get hot and start the composting. On a cold day, steam actually rises from a compost pile!!!!

You don't own farmland or cows, do you? What in blazes do you THINK cattlemen do with the manure? We sure don't eat it. It's spread over the land then plowed in before the grass or corn crop is planted. The other thing that is done is it's taken and placed in plastic bags and you city folk pay for it and spread it on your lawns. A dairyman gets up at 2:00 A.M. to start milking at 4:00 A.M. which, with 450 head takes a bunch of hours. Then you turn the cows out again and at 4:00 P.M. you do it all again and finish about 9:00 P.M. (You only have to do this 365 days a year so there's a lot of down time). I'm not sure where that desk chair is, but it sure isn't in the milk building. No one gives their cows "TOXIC" injections, they are one's livelyhood and just as valuable as your lapdog.

Well said. I can only eat about a handful of items in the US due to all chemicals in foods, juices, toothpastes(yes, i said toothpastes too), the rest i order online that is imported in, because many other countries DO NOT use the high levels or none at all, because its dangerous(our bodies can not digest them, which is why the sickness of the people is over-flowing here). And i'm not speaking of just fast foods & processed foods either. Breads, certain fruits *Apples*, all types of cheeses & fake cheeses (except block cheeses), meat cuts especially Pork, some Organics are laced with chemicals too…. Til one becomes ill from the foods & til you research every ingredient(as i have too), one has no idea what they are actually eating. It is quite a shock to the system. Because Food companies are known to change ingredients, every time i buy anything i have to read the ingredient. New products especially-once your hooked, its a well known tool food companies play on us. In this year alone(2013) i have had to change my breads/loaves 4x due to the changing of ingredients in the breads i've bought. Its the greed of so many, no care to how it effects us in any form of way…. So sad!!!!

WHAT A MESS. THE STATE DEPARTMENT HAS TAKEN OVER THE OIL INDUSTRY. THE DEMO COMOS WANT TO TAKE OVER THE DRUG BUSINESS FROM THE MOB. YOU CAN CALL THE GOVERNOR OF ANY STATE AND PLACE A BET. THE CONGRESS IS FULL OF PROSTITUTES. THE PRESIDENT SAYS HE WILL HAVE A BIGGER MILITARY AFTER HE GETS RID OF THIS ONE. THE EPA IS EXPORTING FACTORIES TO CHINA.. ALL THE DOO DOO GOODERS WHO STICK THEIR NOSE IN EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS DON'T KNOW WHERE TO BUY MILK. CLOSE THE EPA AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. CHARGE THEM BOTH WITH CROP FAILURE.http://WWW.SPIRITOFAMERICAPARTYRADIOSHOW. COM

Ann Covington needs to go to a working farm and follow the man around. Watch out you might step in pile of cow do-do. Give her a scoop and let her shovel some real s#@t. Bet she couldn't even get up early enough to see the cows being milked! She probably would stop drinking milk after watching the milking being done the old fashion way!

Ron Paul is the only one honest enough and has been around all the crooks in DC to know how to undo what they have trying to do to destroy our country for the last 40 years or so. It would take him one term just to "reboot" the federal government. They hide things they want that they know damn well will never pass in bills that have nothing to do with the hidden corruption. It would take years of going through laws these idiots have passed to find the cancer in them. What a mess!

Whhaaatttt???? Manure helps the grass grow. Why don't you direct the EPA people to live with nature in the middle of a modern bison herd, hugely reduced from the former population, to get a better idea of the great benefits of dung and, if so, water pollution.
I direct the EPA to GET REAL!

The only BULL is this administration trying to feed us all this 100 % BS. Send them to Siberia where they belong with there beloved leader. As long as you have these communists running the white house your liberty and freedoms are going to disappear sooner then you think. We need to dismantle anything this administration ever put into law by our dear ruler. The guillotine would be the perfect cure for treason.

Ann Covington, Ever been on a farm Ann? I was raised on one, what you are looking at are the few that survived the Governments weeding out of farmers for over 50 years now, They grow fewer and fewer, these men are the smart ones that have survived, they are not lazy, City people are lazy! not farmers, oh and they spread the manure on the fields as you suggest often letting it cold compost on the fields, some even threw liquidizing it and sending it threw there sprinklers to the crops. Lady, The farmers are up to there necks in Government mandated this and that! they don't need the EPA messing with any thing for them, These men understand the soil far better then you do I believe, They have to learn to survive and each year brings on more. On the seed thing, yes there was a problem but you should understand there are few seed company's to buy seed from, Farmers need the highest producing seed they can buy, This is were they were dubbed into this, Often if you do not use a certain feed or seed the company's will not buy your produce. and here is the problem, often the farms barely survives depends on a buyer dong so as the sad price and the buyer often demands some things, brand of seed and type are some of those things. Believe me I wish I would have been able to make it threw the hard years and kept farming, often farmers are the lowest paid entrepreneurs there are out there. combines costing $300,000 to $500,000 each, tractors going for over $100,000 each and fuel, We had one tractor that would burn a 55 gallons of fuel in a day, a short day of say 10 hours or so, long days go more on the line of 16 hours a day, I lived it I know. I hate what this country has became in the last years especially since Obummer has stolen the White house being Ineligible for the office and all.

Between the EPA and huge Corporate farms, the traditional family farms can't catch a break. Corporate farming is Big Business, and one of the main reasons family farms are disappearing.
Why do our tax $$ go to subsidize Corporate agri-business while the family farm goes bankrupt just trying to pay their bills? oh right, Lobbyists and the Bankers come first!! Just ask Roy Blunt-R, MO..the Congressman who slipped the Monsanto Protection Act (basically legal immunity) into the last absolutely must pass spending bill. A bill which gave large amounts of $$ to some of the richest farmers and Corporate farms while ignoring the needs of folks like us. The farmers who work their butts off for a living, a living they love and enjoy, are on the losing end of Robber Baron economics.

The EPA does not do one thing without the approval of "O" As Harry used to say "The buck stops here!" There then is the source of every EPA stoporder. None of this is because of a bumbling president. This is deliberate. We went through WWII and the armies of three countries could not bring us down. We began to back down in the Korean War, and then it was Nam, and it was all political. Now one man is doing what the army of three couintries couldn't do. That is, the overthrow of the United States of America, and he is doing it from within with every deceptive means at his disposal. There isn't one Judge that will unseal, what he hisself has sealed. Those things that are sealed would be the glaring proof that is needed to throw him into prison.

Defund EPA and totally eliminate it. It is a tool of totalitarianism nothing more. The power hungry big government thugs have been expanding EPA since its creation by Nixon. This thing is the Albatross dragging the United States down.

Thje EPA is to the USA as the pile of manure is to the cow, waste. And to those of us who wish to avoid stepping in it, a smelly mess only good for ferilizer and enriching the soil, and for flies to breed in!

Another example of the government trying to order behavior where they know nothing about what they are doing! They are NOT farmers or any other useful kind of worker. They are only Know-nothing bureaucrats!! DOWN WITH THE EPA!!!

Great, just great. Lisa Jackson is now after the dairy farms. The EPA's attacks will cause the price of milk to go higher. What happens when the dairy farms start going out of business? Where will you get milk from if most of the dairy farms get forced out of business? How do your children get milk to build strong teeth and bones? I see this becoming a national health issue. I think if Lisa Jackson has a problem with cow patties, then maybe she should get a spoon and eat it. I'm sure that a dairy farmer might give her a glass of milk to wash it down.

My goodness, have any of these government do-do,s ever been on a farm and observed the farmers using a manure spreader destributing the recycled manure on their fields, their gardens and on cow pastures ? Evidently these "City Slickers" haven't ever been on a farm. Lisa, take from this man who married a former Ohio farm lady, Get educated first before you attempt to run dairy, grain, or livestock farmers business!! Lisa, take my advise, RESIGN!!

There are some 'City Slickers' who have taken over the farming industry. They and their huge Corporate farms are the ones creating problems in the business of Agriculture. They do not operate the same as family-based farmers and ranchers do. I'm sure they've paid off the EPA many times. This looks like another attempt to destroy the values of traditional farming and handing food production over to the "City Slickers" who run these massive Corporate farms, making hundreds of millions in profits to fund their elitist life styles. It is not a Repub v Dem problem. It is a GREED problem.

When a government agency belligerently makes itself the enemy of the people something has to happen. We either wimpishly become the slaves of that government or we exercise our Declaration of Freedom principles because they are no longer governing with the consent of the governed. No wonder they tried to take away 2nd amendment rights through Fast and Furious.

The government, ALL of them, are out of control. And we must hold them accountable. On your other point, last I checked nobody tried to take away our 2nd Amendment rights. That's media talking head paranoia speaking for you. Propaganda and spinning the facts. They're as bad as the gov't…oh wait!! They basically work for the gov't. Corporate rule, the strategy of divide and conquer. United we stand, divided we fall.